Northland College MAGAZINE
FALL 2017
THE NEW GREEN PATH pg. 5 IN WILDNESS AND WONDER
The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute looks to the Future
pg. 14
A CENTURY OF THE BRO FAMILY pg. 24 Also in this issue: In Brief • Research • And More NCMagazine-FALL2017-FINAL.indd 1
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#GIVINGTUESDAY IS NOVEMBER 28
MARK YOUR CALENDAR Celebrate 125 years of Northland history and ensure the future by becoming a sustainer. Help us meet our goal of 125 new sustaining donors. #Give2NC
JESSICA ECKHARDT '07 Assistant Professor of Sociology
In July, Northland College awarded Jim and Beth Hagstrom the 2017 Philanthropist of the Year Award. This award is given to individuals pushing the Northland College vision forward. Jim has served on the board of trustees since 2012. In addition to their generosity over the years, the Hagstroms donated the Blue Wave, located on Lake Superior, west of Ashland, to Northland College in 2016.
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CONTENTS
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
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THE NEW GREEN PATH
Mission
Northland College integrates liberal arts studies with an environmental emphasis, enabling those it serves to address the challenges of the future.
President Dr. Michael A. Miller
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IN BRIEF
FALL FESTIVAL
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RESEARCH
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IN WILDNESS AND WONDER THE UNCOMMON LIVES OF COMMON LOONS PG. 16 HOWLING WITH WOLVES PG. 17 SIGURD OLSON NATURE WRITING AWARDS PG. 18 CHANGING LIVES PG. 20
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Northland College Magazine FALL 2017
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GEOLOGIC PERSPECTIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE
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ON THE MOVE
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GENERATIONS
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SNAPSHOTS
President’s Cabinet Dr. Leslie Alldritt, Dean of Faculty, Vice President of Academic Affairs Hal Haynes Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Robert Jackson Vice President of Finance and Administration Teege Mettille Executive Director of Admissions Margot Carroll Zelenz Executive Director of Institutional Advancement
Faculty Council President
Brian Tochterman, Assistant Professor Sustainable Community Development
Staff Council President
Demeri Mullikin, Executive Director of Institutional Marketing Communications © 2017, Northland College
On the Cover A mother and daughter take in the wildness and wonder of a north woods lake during a sunset row. Learn more about the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute's plans to continue connecting people with the outdoors on page 14.
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From the President Dear Friends, As many of you know by now, I will be retiring at the end of this fiscal year—June 30, 2018. I feel only pride seeing my name on Northland’s 125-year timeline alongside Edward P. Wheeler, Melmon J. Fenenga, Joseph Brownell, John Reuling, Lewis H. Brumbaugh, Gus Turbeville, Richard P. Bailey, Robert V. Cramer, Malcolm McLean, Robert Rue Parsonage, and Karen Halbersleben. Serving as Northland’s thirteenth president for the past seven years has been a remarkable honor and goes down as my final and greatest professional accomplishment. Together, as a community, we have raised and championed the quality, stature, and reputation of the College, and deepened its commitment to the environmental mission. In the last seven years, with you by my side, we’ve strengthened relationships with the community, alumni, donors, and trustees, created four centers of excellence, deepened our environmental mission, and increased our visibility and ability to respond to global issues. We should all feel proud knowing that at a time when higher education numbers at liberal arts institutions are shrinking, we welcomed the largest and most diverse class of new students we’ve had since the 1990s. We’ve strengthened tribal relationships: creating the Indigenous Cultures Center, updating the Native American Museum, continuing the powwow, adding lacrosse, and declaring Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We’ve expanded our regional freshwater research and launched the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, combining student research and communication about these important global issues. We’ve helped create a stronger regional food economy through our commitment to buying eighty percent local foods and the opening of the Hulings Rice Food Center. And we’ve added the Center for Rural Communities, which intersects with water, food, and the rural economy with its research-based solutions to social and economic challenges and promotion of long-term health and vitality in the region. This past January, we also signed a precedentsetting property lease with the United States Forest Service that allows us to use the historic Forest Lodge estate on Lake Namekagon for educational programs and conferences. The staff of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute have taken the lead on developing Forest Lodge programs, and as you’ll see in the feature articles
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about the Institute included in this issue of the Northland College Magazine, Forest Lodge is an ideal facility for realizing the Institute’s mission of promoting, protecting, and celebrating experiences of wildness and wonder in northern woods and waters. These many expressions and accomplishments have put us on the national stage. Now, with growing enrollment and the budget in line with current revenues, it is a good time to search for a new and energetic leader for Northland’s next chapter. Chad Dayton, the vice chair of the board of trustees, will lead a search committee of trustees, alumni, staff, faculty, and student representatives. The search firm Isaacson, Miller has been selected to conduct the search. This is the firm previously used when I was hired seven years ago. I will not be seeking another position. After June 30, Mary Trettin and I will be attending to our health, family members, and those around us. With Malcolm McLean as my model of gracefulness, I will continue to champion Northland any way that the board and new president desire. I look forward to working with you—our advocates, partners, alumni, and friends of Northland—in the year ahead.
Michael A. Miller President, Northland College
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THE NEW GREEN PATH 1972 Northland College enters a new era as it creates the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, adds Native American studies and outdoor education to its academic programming, and adopts the environmental mission that continues today.
The timeline running throughout this issue—a continuation of the timeline in the Spring 2017 issue—celebrates Northland College’s 125th anniversary. By looking back at our rich history we hope to also illuminate a bright future as Northland continues strong through the rest of its second century.
1972 Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute created under the leadership of its first director, Robert Matteson. (Go to page 14 to read SOEI’s timeline)
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IN BRIEF HOT TOPICS Why Lake Superior is the Country’s Most Overlooked Playground Outside Online, May 23, 2017 Reporter Stephanie Pearson stopped to talk with Peter Annin, co-director of the Northland College Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, as she passed through the region on her travels around Lake Superior. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Graduates, Especially, Be Astounded by the Wonder All Around Us Duluth News Tribune, June 10, 2017 Retired SOEI Executive Director Mark Peterson gave the Baccalaureate address in May. The Duluth News Tribune published his piece on the connection between wonder and wisdom. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The Penokees are a Geologic Gem WisContext, June 15, 2017 Reporter Scott Gordon provides a summary and overview (as well as a recording) of a talk Professor of Geoscience Tom Fitz recorded for Wisconsin Public Television’s "University Place," where Fitz delved into how the Penokees—“some of the oldest rocks in Wisconsin”—took shape. He explored the processes that formed the complex layers of rock making up the range, detailed the benefits the region provides, and discussed the difficulty of balancing different human and environmental needs. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ They’re Voracious, Nonnative and Getting Closer to the Great Lakes Chicago Tribune, June 23, 2017 Reporter Michael Hawthorne quotes Peter Annin in this article about Asian carp and the Great Lakes.
The Class of 2021 Northland College welcomed 232 new students—the largest class in sixteen years—September 8, with a ceremonial walk across Fenenga Bridge, convocation address, revival of the Northland College pep song, and Everybody Party, sponsored by the Northland College Student Association.
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Has Queer Culture Lost its Edge? Salon, August 6, 2017 Cynthia Belmont, professor of English and gender and women’s studies, looks at the current state of queer culture. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Refashioned Paddle Helps Man Who Lost His Hand Explore Joys of Canoeing Star Tribune, August 18, 2017 Retired Northland College Professor of Outdoor Education Cindy Dillenschneider continues to refine a special paddle that has helped one man and his family enjoy paddling again. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Wisconsin’s Disappearing Forests Site/Lines (Foundation of Landscape Studies), Fall 2017 Freelance reporter Julie Buckles, who is currently director of communications at Northland College, writes about the ways in which deer have impacted the northern landscape and the scientists who attempted to document, research, and slow the process. The article focuses on the work of Northland College Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Biology Sarah Johnson ’02 and former Professor of Botany Jim Meeker, now deceased. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Dorm Décor at Northland College Teen Vogue, September 14, 2017 Juniors Lily and Ruby Sevilla are twins, roommates, and have an eye for sustainable decorating. For their aesthetic, they were featured in Teen Vogue magazine. Take a peek into their minimalist-styled room.
Read the full stories at:
northland.edu/news
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Hulings Rice Food Center Dedication More than 125 people attended the dedication of the Hulings Rice Food Center and the Don R. and Carole J. Larson Food Lab Friday, September 22. “We’re going to meet our goal of purchasing eighty percent local food,” said Todd Rothe, director of the center, in addressing the crowd. Rothe said the center will work to make the College and the region more resilient and self sufficient, help farmers, educate students, and make campus a beautiful and inspiring place to be. He reported that since July, the Center has processed nearly a ton of vegetables and composted 8,000 pounds of food scraps into “black gold.” In addition to campus-wide food scraps, the College collects waste from community members, Bodin’s Fisheries, the Chequamegon Food Cooperative, and the Ashland School District.
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Northland College Divests from Fossil Fuels The Northland College Board of Trustees voted in July to fully divest Northland College’s endowment funds from fossil fuels over the next five years. Approximately 2.9 percent of the College’s $28 million endowment—about $823,000— is currently invested in fossil fuels, according to the Carbon
Underground 200, an annually updated global listing of the top 100 public coal, and the top 100 natural gas and oil companies. These investments will be replaced with more socially responsible investments, with no further investment going to fossil fuel companies. “To truly embrace our environmental mission, it is incumbent upon us to mindfully remove fossil fuel companies from our endowment portfolio,” said Trustee Mike Fiorio, a Northland College alumnus, a thirty-two-year veteran of
the financial services industry, and a partner of Fiorio Wealth Advisors. “I’m proud to say that the Northland College Board of Trustees has embraced this initiative.” Based on data from the last twenty-five years looking at portfolios that incorporate fossil fuels and those that don’t, Fiorio, who sits on the College’s Investment Committee, concluded that there would be little-to-no long-term negative impact on returns. The student campaign for divestment at Northland College began in 2012 and was revived in 2014, according to Emily Donaldson, a 2017 graduate, who spoke before the board of trustees. Donaldson was a research assistant at the Northland College Center for Rural Communities and as a student directed the Environmental Council, the student organization that pushed for the change. “This is campus activism at its best,” said President Miller. “Educational institutions have a unique responsibility to divest from fossil fuels and help usher in the transition to a renewable energy economy that works for all, especially the young people for whom they exist.”
Northland Is Still In Northland College has joined with other higher education institutions in signing onto the coalition, We Are Still In, to ensure the US remains a global leader in reducing carbon emissions. The organization formed in June after President Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change. We Are Still In represents more than 1,200 groups—including leaders from more than 125 cities—including Bryan Kennedy, mayor of Glendale, Wisconsin, and Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,—nine states, 902 businesses and investors, and 183 colleges and universities. Northland College was also joined by four of its five EcoLeague partners: College of the Atlantic, Dickinson College, Green Mountain College, and Prescott College.
2017 Loon and Wolf Posters Now Available The 2017 Loon Awareness Week and Wolf Awareness Week posters are now both available for order from the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. The loon poster features a photo by Lorna Rohloff and the wolf poster features a drawing by Emma Loisch. To order yours for $7 each, go to northland.edu/loonposter or northland.edu/wolf-awarenessposter.
1972 Native American studies program added to liberal arts curriculum.
1974 Joe Rose ’58 begins teaching Native American studies; Joel Glickman begins teaching music.
1975 First spring powwow held in March.
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IN BRIEF
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Increased academic success Faculty Researchers Uncover Benefits of Outdoor Recreation Programs Four researchers, including Elizabeth Andre, associate professor of outdoor education, reviewed the academic literature regarding campus outdoor recreation. Programs and facilities, like climbing walls, often become a target for critics as emblems of waste. By looking at the literature, Andre and her colleagues uncovered numerous benefits for participants and schools. Their findings were published earlier this year in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education Leadership.
2. Facilitates a smoother transition to college. 3. Better mental & physical health. 4. Lower levels of stress & anxiety.
Goetz Awarded Professor Emeritus Bruce Goetz, retired professor of geoscience, was recently awarded the title of Professor Emeritus by Northland College. “When I heard that my colleagues had voted for that and approved that unanimously, I was just humbled,” Goetz said. “For a faculty member, it’s the highest honor you can get.” Goetz retired from Northland College in 2016.
5. Better & more social connections. 6. Better interpersonal skills. 7. Increased environmental sensitivity. 8. Better connection to nature & place.
1976 Outdoor Education program established.
1980 Floyd E Queeb enrolls at Northland College.
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Tochterman Publishes New Book on Postwar New York In June, the University of Carolina Press released The Dying City: Postwar New York and the Ideology of Fear by Brian L. Tochterman, assistant professor of sustainable community development.
In this cultural history, Tochterman examines competing narratives that shaped post–World War II New York City. As a sense of crisis rose in American cities during the 1960s and 1970s, a period defined by suburban growth and deindustrialization, no city was viewed as in its death throes more than New York. Tochterman reveals how elite culture producers, planners and theorists, and elected officials drew on and perpetuated the fear of death to press for a new urban vision. It was this narrative of New York as the dying city, Tochterman argues, that contributed to a burgeoning and broad anti-urban political culture hostile to state intervention on behalf of cities and citizens. Ultimately, the author shows that New York’s decline—and the decline of American cities in general—was in part a self-fulfilling prophecy bolstered by urban fear and the new political culture nourished by it.
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Ponzio Stadium Recognized as One of the Best The American Sports Builders Association announced that the Northland College Ponzio Stadium has been named as one of the best single field facilities in the country. The ASBA recognizes and promotes excellence in sports facility design and construction throughout the United States and will vote on the top facility in December at its annual conference. Some six-hundred people attended the grand opening of the stadium last September and men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s lacrosse played on the field this past year. The stadium has also hosted community flag football games, youth soccer camps and games, regional high school contests
and scrimmages, and campus intramurals. Rettler Corporation, from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, provided project site design and construction management services as part of the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the stadium. Artificial turf extends the playing season and incorporates features that fit with the College’s mission of sustainability, like zero storm water discharge. The project included installation of synthetic turf and a multi-use athletic field accommodating soccer, football, and lacrosse. The facility includes a new masonry press box with suites and restroom and concession facilities below, grandstand seating for 1,100 spectators, a new score board, a lighting system, a masonry overhead entry feature, and decorative pavement details throughout the facility.
Education Program Recognized For the second time in three years, the Northland College Educator Preparation Program has been recognized by the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education as a Model of Excellence in Partnerships. Annette Nelson, professor of teacher education and department chair, accepted the award in March at the AILACTE national conference in Tampa, Florida. This national award recognizes the community collaboration between Northland College and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College (LCOOCC) in Hayward, Wisconsin, and their work to advance the Future Indian Teachers Program through advancement and extension of the Training
Exceptional Educators Clinical Residency Program. This partnership directly supports and impacts regional, state, and national efforts to increase diversity in the K-12 teaching profession as well as efforts in Ojibwa language revitalization by increasing the number of certified and licensed Native American teachers. Under the direction of Les Alldritt, vice president of academic affairs at Northland College, and Diane Vertin, president of LCOOCC, together with the sponsorship of Ashland Ford Chrysler and owner Mike Mikula, the program was delivered on the LCOOCC campus during evenings and weekends in 2016. The graduates of the program participated in the May 27 commencement at Northland College.
1987 Robert Rue Parsonage becomes Northland College’s eleventh president.
1982 Northland’s women’s volleyball team celebrates a national championship victory. The team is coached by Steve Franklin ’81, his first season as coach at Northland College.
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Photos by David Bednarski '73
2001 The Native American Museum opens. 1986 Officials of HagoromoGakuen Junior College in Osaka, Japan, gather in the Sentry Room in the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute with President Malcolm McLean to sign an agreement to formalize a sister college relationship.
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1996 The Wendy and Malcolm McLean Environmental Living and Learning Center opens, featuring sustainable architecture, a 120-foot wind turbine, photovoltaic arrays, a greenhouse, and composting toilets with rooms for 120 students, along with social spaces, kitchens, lounges, and study spaces.
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CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 2002 Karen I. Halbersleben becomes Northland’s twelfth president.
POSTHUMOUS AWARDS
Alumni Awards & Recognitions Presented at Fall Festival During Fall Festival in September, the Northland College Alumni Association Awards Program awarded and recognized alumni and friends of the College who have made significant professional and/or personal accomplishments.
Ori-Anne Pagel ’69, Distinguished Service Award A lifetime of love for the arts and history fuel Ori-Anne’s passion for the Northland College Archives. This volunteerrun resource was saved by Ori-Anne and other thoughtful alumni under her direction. She has contributed countless hours to collecting, organizing, and cataloging items and documents which—without her effort—may well have been destroyed. She truly is the savior of our past, preserving it for our boundless future.
Andrea Robertson ’00, Northern Lights Music & Arts Award Andrea is an Ashland native who received her degree in history before getting her PhD and taking an assistant professor position at Macalester College. She began writing novels after a horse broke her foot. Eleven books later, she believes that horse must have been an agent of fate. Writing under the name Andrea Cremer, she is a New York Times bestselling author for her book Nightshade (2010), now a series, and is a full-time author for Penguin Books.
Matt Tanneberg ’10, Young Alumni Achievement Award Graduating with a degree in biochemistry, Matt received his doctorate from Palmer College of Chiropractic in San Jose, California. He graduated cum laude at the top of his class. He works with professional athletes from MLB, NHL, NFL, NCAA, and the US Olympic team. He volunteers his time and skills for local sporting events and schools with low-income students.
Parker Matzinger ’16, Young Alumni Achievement Award The indelible Parker achieved more as a young man and undergraduate than most do in a lifetime. His work with Professor Erik Olson was groundbreaking and quickly revolutionizing their area of environmental research. Parker, while a very recent graduate, touched the lives of countless students, alumni, and Ashland community members. Tragically, his life was cut short in early 2017 doing exactly what he loved to do: environmental research about the wild places he spent his short life protecting. Marlene Parkhurst, Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Marlene served Northland from 1969-1999. Pre-Title IX, Marlene was ahead of her time, starting the women’s volleyball team which began women’s sports at Northland. She left Northland to get her doctorate, returning to campus in 1982. She was hired as the athletic director and served until 1999. Under her direction, the athletic program grew, adding softball, hockey, baseball, and women’s soccer. Her contributions to Northland cannot be overstated; we simply would not be the same place if it wasn’t for Marlene.
The Alumni Board is seeking nominations for next year’s Alumni Association Awards, presented in September. Anyone can nominate and some award categories are open to friends, faculty, and staff. The Alumni Board of Directors approves the nominations and awards. Check out the categories and nominate someone today at northland.edu/alumni/association
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RESEARCH IN THE FIELD The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin awarded Northland $1,100 for Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Erik Olson to oversee faculty-student research monitoring purple loosestrife on the Chippewa Flowage. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The University of Wisconsin-Madison granted a sub-award to Northland for $16,690 for Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Erik Olson to oversee faculty-student surveying of the status of American martens in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The prime funder is the US National Park Service. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The City of Ashland granted the Center for Rural Communities (CRC) at Northland $17,230 for CRC Director of Research Programs Ana Tochterman to oversee a city-wide housing study. The project will employ student research assistants to look at demographic and housing characteristics and trends and identify housing needs. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program awarded the Mary Griggs Burke (MGB) Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland $29,250 for MGB Co-Director Randy Lehr to work with Northland students to develop decision support tools for local governments for sustaining water quality in Lake Superior. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources awarded the Mary Griggs Burke (MGB) Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland $49,630 for MGB Co-Director Randy Lehr to work with Northland students to develop management plans for Upson and O’Brien lakes in Iron County. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The Ohio State University granted a sub-award to Northland for $4,000 for Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Biology Sarah Johnson '02 to oversee an intern to inform fire management approaches across three on-going projects in a Great Lakes barren ecosystem. The prime funder is the US Bureau of Land Management. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The US Fish and Wildlife Service awarded Northland, in cooperation with the Office of Applied Learning, $22,940 to employ four natural resource interns through its Ashland office. In addition, Northland contributed approximately $6,000 in work-study cost-share funds to help employ the interns. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The Town of La Pointe awarded Northland, in cooperation with the Office of Applied Learning, $2,260 for an outdoor education student to design and implement a summer recreation program for Madeline Island youth. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The University of Wisconsin-Superior granted a sub-award to Northland, in cooperation with the Office of Applied Learning, for $4,530 for a Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve Rivers2Lake program internship. The prime funder is the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ The National Collegiate Athletic Association awarded Northland a oneyear $26,660 Division III Ethnic Minorities and Women’s Internship grant to help employ an intern in the athletics department and enhance gender and ethnic minority representation in intercollegiate athletics administration.
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Flying Squirrel Photobomb Leads to New Discovery A photobombing squirrel helped a Northland College student document the highest recorded observation of the gray tree frog in northern Wisconsin. As part of a larger study of old and large white pine canopies, senior Madison Laughlin of Edmonds, Washington, documented the tree frog almost seventy feet above the ground—more than double the highest previously on record. Her findings were published in the May issue of the scientific journal, Ecology. “This frog appears to be able to weather sun during the day in the canopy by finding shady and cool spots,” said Laughlin, who studies natural resources and geology. The John C. Bock Foundation provided funds for a multiyear grant in 2015 for a canopy survey that included this student research. As part of the study, Laughlin and her tree-climbing professors set up three motion sensitive cameras in three white pines to observe life at the tops of the trees. They have already identified seventeen species of animals—squirrels, birds, mice, and tree frogs—as well as a mushroom species, a variety of insects and many lichen species particular to this special habitat. “This is research that is literally being done in our backyard,” said Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Erik Olson. “That is one of the beautiful things about science—we don’t have to go to
the ends of the Earth to make new insights into our world.” In this case, capturing frogs in unexpected places. Tree frogs are small and similar in temperature to their environment so they do not set off the motion sensitive cameras. However, flying squirrels do. And on four different occasions, flying squirrels have exposed tree frogs up high. Laughlin says there is a gap in what we know about tree frogs—oddly, there isn’t much research on tree frogs in trees. “Most of the research is about their breeding, which takes place in ponds,” she said. “This research is helping open the door to the vertical dimension of habitat.” These images suggest a higher level of habitat usage in the tops of trees than previously thought. “I love forestry and forest ecology,” Laughlin said. “And I’ve never thought about the three-dimensional aspect of habitat—there’s a lot going on up there.” Additional work is underway to describe the habitat usage of other animals high in the trees and to begin to answer the question of why tree frogs go so high. “We’re not surprised that the canopy is an important habitat, but we are surprised how many and what species are up there and how often they visit,” said Assistant Professor of Forestry Jonathan Martin who is codirecting the research. “The combination of the scale and growth patterns of these trees, as well as the habitat surprises, gives me a renewed appreciation for the complex processes occurring high off ground.”
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Canopy Survey The canopy survey that yielded the tree frog results, began as a collaboration between Martin and Olson, who both have a passion for climbing. When Martin returned to the region to teach at Northland, he started to notice a special niche of the super canopy of white pines. “I was curious about how these large sentinel trees grow, store carbon, and respond to environmental variability, but the first step was to figure out how big they are,” he said. Models used to scale total tree mass and volume aren’t accurate for trees three or four feet in diameter. In addition, the scientific community doesn’t know how tree structure and growth changes when trees get really big and old. “Most of our models that we use to determine the total amount of biomass or carbon that trees store assumes that growth is distributed evenly across the tree,” he said. “The question is, is a big tree just a bigger version of a smaller tree?” Martin brought in Olson, who has experience using remote cameras in trees. Preliminary results indicate the answers are not simple, that a good year for tree growth may be a good year across the whole tree but the upper canopy can put on more or less wood, relative to the lower stem, as the canopy changes. “In other words, the changes aren’t necessarily represented in growth in the lower stem which is where trees are typically measured,” Martin said. “These big trees are also very complex surfaces that are ecosystems themselves.”
YOUR SUPPORT MAKES THESE
STUDENT EXPERIENCES
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IN WILDNESS AND WONDER THE SIGURD OLSON ENVIRONMENTAL INSTITUTE LOOKS TO THE FUTURE BY ALAN BREW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SOEI
Over the past year, in anticipation of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute’s fiftieth anniversary in 2022, the staff of the Institute have reflected on its history and deliberated about its future. We have shared with one another our own, affirming experiences of wildness as well as the anguish we often feel in the face of personal challenges and when it is evident that, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, aspects of our village life are stagnating. In this context, we have refined the Institute’s mission to focus on programs and activities that promote, protect, and celebrate experiences of wildness and wonder in northern woods and waters. Through this commitment, we hope to ensure that Sigurd Olson’s singing wilderness continues to be available for all and to expand significantly the number of individuals who benefit from the tonic that it can provide. Inspiration and affirmation for this refined focus come from literary and scientific testimonies of the essential role that wild nature plays in our lives, as well as from personal experiences with students in wild places. Writing in the midst of our country’s first industrial revolution, as we were beginning the transition from a rural, frontier citizenry to a predominantly urban citizenry, Thoreau offered a compelling
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testament to the value of wild nature and to the essential role that it might play in our personal and collective lives. “We need the tonic of wildness,” he wrote in Walden, “to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk” and “to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest.” Without this tonic, Thoreau asserted, our “village life would stagnate.” Writing in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the Second World War, Sigurd F. Olson also testified persuasively to the value of wild nature. In The Singing Wilderness, he describes how a childhood experience “in a wild and lovely place” allowed him to enter “into a life of indescribable beauty and delight.” And, in Listening Point, he describes how a wild spit of land in the Quetico-Superior country helped him to know “one of the oldest
satisfactions of man”—how it allowed him to recapture an “almost forgotten sense of wonder” and to learn “from rocks and trees . . . truths that can encompass all.” Today, in the throes of our own Digital Revolution, the essential value of wild nature, and the wonder it inspires, continues to be affirmed. Richard Louv has demonstrated the sobering consequences of childhoods deficient in nature. Recent studies in the neurosciences have shown that interactions with nature promote improved cognitive functioning. And, Christopher Norment, a teacher and environmental scientist, has argued in an article for Orion Magazine that it is wonder, and especially wonder inspired by encounters with wild nature, “that sustains intellectual and artistic creativity, nourishes the most active minds, and gives rise to the best professionals, no matter what their area of expertise.” For nearly twenty years now, I have had the good fortune to spend a month or more of each year traveling with children and young adults in wild places. I have sat with them on Olson’s Listening Point and watched as they traced with their own hands glacial striations in granite billions of years old. I have listened with them to the howls of wolves and to the yodels and wails of loons as day fades into night on campsites deep in the Boundary Waters. I have paddled with them to the foot of a remote waterfall on the Canadian shore of Lake Superior and felt its power in our feet and eardrums as it tumbled and thundered to the shore of the lake. And, I have hiked with them to the sandstone cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in May and watched sandhill
1972 Environmentalist, naturalist, writer, and Northland College alumnus Sigurd F. Olson active in the formation of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute.
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1978 Sigurd Olson turns soil for the ground-breaking of the environmental institute that bears his name.
cranes walking on ice sheets that wouldn’t fully melt until June. Through these and numerous other experiences, and in the faces of my students, in the pages of their journals, in the life paths they have pursued, I have seen testimony after testimony to the transformative and sustaining power of wild nature—to Thoreau’s tonic of wildness and to Olson’s singing wilderness. And yet, the number of individuals who engage with nature continues to decline and the threats to wild nature are more pervasive and persistent than they’ve ever been. New technologies are also creating seductive and addictive devices that draw youth and adults alike into increasingly virtual worlds where connections are more illusionary than real. In a recent article for The Atlantic, for instance, Jean M. Twenge, demonstrates that postMillennials, who spend significant amounts of time each day alone and indoors with their devices, are physically safer than ever before (fewer parties, fewer car accidents, etc.) while rates of teen depression and suicide are skyrocketing. Believing that experiences of wildness and wonder can be a powerful counter force to these trends, the Institute will focus in the coming years on creating and facilitating these experiences and on ensuring that they are available to youth, college students, and our north woods communities. As part of this focus, we will continue and further develop well-established programs at the Institute that already affirm the value of wild nature, such as LoonWatch, the Timber Wolf Alliance, Apostle Islands School, and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Awards, while simultaneously developing and delivering new programs and activities. In the pages that follow, you will read about some of the Institute programs that are contributing to the realization of our mission. I hope you find them inspiring and that you will join us in this new phase of the Institute’s journey as a participant, contributor, or donor to one or more of our programs.
1978 Project LoonWatch begins. 1981 The earth-sheltered, passive solar-heated headquarters for the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute is dedicated with Sigurd Olson in attendance.
1985 Apostle Islands School opens. 1982 Sigurd Olson passes away on January 13 while snowshoeing near his home in Ely, Minnesota.
1987 Timber Wolf Alliance created.
1992 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award created.
1994 First Lake Superior Youth Symposium held.
Alan Brew has served as a faculty member in the English department at Northland College since 1999. His courses focus on American literature and nature writing, and he regularly teaches field-based courses in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Lake Superior Watershed. With his wife Nicole, he has hiked, paddled, skied, and fished in many of our country’s awe-inspiring wild places, and both of their children experienced their first Boundary Waters canoe trip before they were six weeks old. Alan began serving as the executive director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute in August and continues to teach part-time for the English department.
2010 SOEI coordinates thirteen federal, state and local agencies, tribes, municipalities, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions through the Chequamegon Bay Area Partnership to advance shoreline and habitat restoration projects by acquiring federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding.
2017 Northland College signs historic property lease with US Forest Service, allowing the College and SOEI to develop programming at Forest Lodge, located near Cable, Wisconsin.
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“Without love of the land, conservation lacks meaning or purpose, for only in a deep and inherent feeling for the land can there be dedication in preserving it.” —Sigurd F. Olson
The Uncommon Lives of Common Loons By Erica LeMoine, LoonWatch Program Coordinator Despite the many presentations that I’ve given over the past six years, it always gives me a thrill when I hear the “oohs” and “aahs” of an audience learning something new about loons, reacting in amazement to what our Wisconsin colleagues and researchers have unraveled about the mysteries of loons. Much of what has been discovered in the last thirty years is the result of researchers being able to identify individual loons by banding them, which is no easy feat. Loons spend most of their time in the water and routinely dive for a minute or more, surfacing hundreds of feet away from the place where they dove. They are also able to hide themselves by compressing their feathers, letting out air, and lying flat on the surface of the water. It wasn’t until the development of night-time capture techniques
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in the 1990s that researchers were able to consistently capture and band loons. Since then over three thousand loons in northern Wisconsin received US Fish and Wildlife Service metal bands and color plastic bands. Each loon is fitted with a unique band color combination, allowing scientists to identify an individual loon’s behavior and track its location. Through updated technology and loon-specific banding techniques, some amazing new facts about juvenile loon’s migration have emerged. In 2014 and 2015 Kevin Kenow, a researcher at USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, satellite-tagged juvenile loons in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Like adult loons, the juveniles migrated to the Gulf of Mexico, and by the time spring migration was underway, these
juveniles migrated like the adults. But just not back to Wisconsin. Instead, the three satellitetagged loons who survived their first winter, migrated northward in the spring of 2015 up the Atlantic Coast and summered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the coast of Nova Scotia, and then returned for a second winter to the Gulf of Mexico. This behavior is consistent with past band recovery data that indicate some juvenile loons may move northward up the Atlantic Coast during summers. Even more amazing: another researcher, Walter Piper, has discovered that banded chicks that return as adults disperse close to the lakes where they were born, with male loons returning to within seven miles and female loons returning to within fifteen miles of the lakes where they were born.
And to top that, these juveniles return to the same type of lake where they were raised. If they hatched on a flowage, they’ll return to a flowage. If they hatched on a seepage lake (not the best habitat), they’ll return to a seepage lake. All of that after a three-year absence, many different types of water bodies, and water quality during migration—from the Great Lakes to inland lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. This leads us to wonder about the imprinting that has to happen within those first twelve weeks of life, as the loon grows from chick to juvenile fledgling. This research leads to even more questions that our researchers are working to answer. I feel privileged to share in the awe and amazement of these regal birds—sentinels of our northern lakes.
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When I heard the fullthroated bawling howl, I should have had chills racing up and down my spine. Instead, I was thrilled to know that the big grays might have picked up my trail and were following me down the glistening frozen highway of the river. —Sigurd F. Olson, The Singing Wilderness
Howling with Wolves Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Erik Olson serves on the board of the Timber Wolf Alliance and has conducted and collaborated on research regarding wolf-human interactions, landscape predictors of wolf attacks on bear-hunting dogs, and how pendulum swings in wolf management lead to conflict, illegal kills, and a legislated wolf hunt. He has worked closely with Adrian Wydevan, former wolf biologist at the Department of Natural Resources and director of the Timber Wolf Alliance. In the spirit of scientific inquiry, education, and wonder, Olson and Wydevan take students and the general public out in the wilds of northern Wisconsin to experience the “primitive and unchanged” landscape Sigurd Olson talks about in The Singing Wilderness. “I can talk all day about wolves and will never have the impact taking students out has,” Olson said. “Hearing a wolf howl changes lives.”
The following is one story from one student—Bijit Khadka, senior: As part of my Wolf Ecology and Management class with Professor Olson, we went out in the field one weekend and used radio telemetry and howl surveys to track wolves around the Chequamegon National Forest area. As a class, we drove around the forest roads, stopping every couple miles, getting out of the van and howling, in hopes of getting a response. We had been driving around for over two hours and only the owls and the tree frogs responded to us. It was past midnight and we were about to head back. Professor Olson stopped the van for the last howl. Everyone was sleepy and only a couple of us got out. We were at the corner of a forest road, it was a clear and crisp night and the moon was bright. He howled twice and loud. And then the forest on our left side reverberated with howls; coyotes—probably around fifteen individuals— and then came the yips and barks of pups. I was smiling wide. We just stood still for about five minutes. Then from the right side of the forest we heard really loud howls. It was wolves responding to Professor Olson’s and the coyote’s howls. I was delighted to hear them and to feel their presence. We howled again in excitement. As we stood there, quietly waiting for responses, we heard something trotting in front of us. So, we all looked, trying to figure out what it was. It was a wolf! Just two hundred meters ahead of us. He likely picked up our scent and came to check us out. We slowly backed off towards the van and watched the shadow disappear into the forest. It was an amazing night.
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SIGURD OLSON NATURE WRITING AWARDS
Adult Winner Young Adult Winner
Annual SONWA Winners Announced In April (Earth Day), Northland College announced the winning 2016 books for the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA) in adult, young adult, and children’s literature. Since 1991, the SONWA has honored the literary legacy of Sigurd Olson, who attended Northland College, and is the namesake of the College’s environmental institute, by recognizing and encouraging contemporary writers who seek to carry on his tradition of nature writing. “We had more books than ever to select from this year,” said Alan Brew, a professor of English and the executive director of the SOEI, who sits on the SONWA selection committee. “These books best capture the human relationship with the natural world and have lasting, universal appeal—much like Olson’s work.”
Adult Honorable Mention A Sugar Creek Chronicle: Observing Climate Change from a Midwestern Woodland, by Cornelia F. Mutel (University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa)
Raising Wild: Dispatches from a Home in the Wilderness, by Michael P. Branch (Roost Books, Boulder, Colorado)
Adult Notable Books
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, by Terry Tempest Williams (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Washington DC) Trespassing Across America: One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland, by Ken Ilgunas (Blue Rider Press, New York, New York)
Body of Water: A Sage, a Seeker, and the World’s Most Elusive Fish, by Chris Dombrowski (Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Turning Homeward: Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild, Adrienne Ross Scanlan (Mountaineers Books, Seattle, Washington)
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Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History, by Dan Flores, (Basic Books, New York, New York)
Hawk, by Jennifer Dance (Dundurn, Toronto, Ontario)
Young Adult Honorable Mention Chasing at the Surface, by Sharon Mentyka (Graphic Arts Book, Berkeley, California) Saving Wonder, by Mary Knight (Scholastic Press, New York, New York)
Young Adult Notable Books Dig too Deep: The Story of a Town that Looked the Other Way. And a Girl Who Didn’t, by Amy Allgeyer (Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago, Illinois)
Listen, by Francesca G. Varela (Owl House Books, Pawcatuck, Connecticut)
The Story of Seeds: From Mendel’s Garden to Your Plate, and How There’s More of Less to Eat Around the World, by Nancy F. Castaldo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, New York)
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Children’s Winner
Journey: The Most Famous Wolf in the West, by Emma Bland Smith with illustrations by Robin James (Little Bigfoot, Seattle, Washington)
Children’s Honorable Mention Mr. McGinty’s Monarchs, by Linda Vander Heyden with illustrations by Eileen Ryan Ewen (Sleeping Bear Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan)
What Matters, by Alison Hughes with illustrations by Holly Hatam (Orca Book Publishers, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Children’s Notable Books The Lonely Giant, by Sophie Ambrose (Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts)
Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service, by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Rich Lo (Charlesbridge, Watertown, Massachusetts)
“Educators are ideally situated to get kids fired up about the outdoors.” —Alan Brew, director of the SOEI
SOEI to host CYA Lit Conference The SOEI will host its second annual Children’s and Young Adult Literature Conference November 9-10. Designed for educators, public librarians, teachers, child care providers, parents, and college students enrolled in fields related to education, the conference strives to connect children and young adults to the natural world; and to provide educators with the tools to make it happen.
Register today at northland.edu/cya-lit-conference
Storm’s Coming!, by Margi Preus, illustrated by David Geister (Minnesota Historical Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Wakanda Whooper: The Curious Cinnamon Crane, by Sandia Kosmo, illustrated by Lisa Kosmo (Beaver’s Pond Press, Edina, Minnesota)
Where Do Rivers Go, Momma?, by Catherine L. Weyerhaeuser (Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana)
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“. . . it is wonder that sustains intellectual and artistic creativity, nourishes the most active minds, and gives rise to the best professionals, no matter what their area of expertise.” —Christopher Norment, an excerpt from A Case for Wonder, Orion magazine 2016
Changing Lives By MaryJo Gingras ‘00, Outreach Programs Coordinator and Director of Forest Lodge
The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute’s outreach programs instill a sense of wonder and inspire youth and adult participants through outdoor experiences. A million acres of forest and the largest freshwater lake in the world serve simultaneously as our classroom and playground. Campus-based sessions such as outdoor filmmaking and aquatic ecology allow high school students to reside in the residence halls gaining a glimpse of college life at Northland. Other sessions like sailing in the Apostle Islands or backpacking in Pictured Rocks or paddling the Namekagon River offer the excitement of a wilderness expedition trip. This past summer we launched the Forest Lodge Natural Resource Academy, a weeklong session exploring the natural resources at Forest Lodge, an historic north woods estate nestled among 872 acres of majestic forest along two miles of shoreline on Lake
Namekagon in Cable, Wisconsin. Students study tree identification and forestry skills, traverse Namekagon by pontoon in search of loon chicks, learn wolf ecology and experience howling in the vast dark north woods, and practice calling in the barred owl at Forest Lodge. They also learn about current water quality research from field researchers, and they learn about many natural resource career fields. The impact on participants in this academy is incredible. As Olivia Oeker wrote in her evaluation: “In just four days, I have learned more about nature and myself than I thought possible. This area near Forest Lodge is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.” In addition, we offer an exceptional variety of lifelong learning programs for adults that range from nature journaling to the geology of Minnesota’s north shore to a yoga retreat at Forest Lodge. Taught by professors, artists, and instructors, these sessions help recharge and inspire the kid in all of us.
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CLIMATE CHANGE Geologic Perspectives on Climate Change By Dave Ullman, Assistant Professor of Geoscience On those really hot days in August, I often like to ride my bike down to Maslowski Beach in Ashland to let my mind drift into geologic time. I’ll wade into the cool water and stare out across Chequamegon Bay, imagining a not-so-distant past, where a massive wall of ice would have at one point stood on the horizon, occupying much of Lake Superior. Of course, I am also aware that I would have been standing under about five-hundred feet of water, with red clay sediment settling all around me to create the geologic setting for the refreshing artesian-well water that I sip from my water bottle. The field of geology provides a unique perspective on climate change. Rocks, sediments, (i.e. really small rocks) and ice (i.e. melt-able “rocks”) tell stories about past climate conditions on Earth. There have been cold times and warm times; periods of flourishing life and moments of extinction; buildup and destruction of massive mountain ranges; expansion and constriction of entire ocean basins. The magnitude of change throughout Earth’s past often boggles the mind. Like other scientific disciplines, geology is firmly built upon measurements: distance, time, chemical concentrations, color, etc. The practice of measurement is the same process by which we build our homes, cook our meals and predict the timing of the next solar eclipse to the minute. What do geologic measurements about the past tell us about modern climate change? 1. Current global temperatures are higher than anything seen during the last 125,000 years. 2. Modern concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (410 ppm) are the highest they have been for at least three million years. 3. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are currently increasing at a faster rate than ever before in Earth’s
history. 4. The recent increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has a unique chemical signature indicative of the burning of fossil fuels. The geologic record also tells us of times in the distant past where greenhouse gas concentrations and temperatures were much higher than today. During these periods of warmth, significant melting of ice on Greenland and Antarctica led to sea levels at least twenty vertical feet higher than present. Today, we are seeing the start of similar glacial melt and coastline change in response to modern warming. While fluctuations in climate have been a natural occurrence throughout Earth’s history, human civilization was born during a period of relative climate stability; not too cold, not too hot. This climate stability led to the advent of modern agriculture and other advances in knowledge, culture, and science. Current predictions for warming over the next 100 years suggest we may transition to a drastically different climate, one where the agricultural and wild ecosystems that we rely upon for sustenance could undergo dire changes. Human civilization may not be able to withstand such catastrophic climate change. The technological advancements of the industrial revolution and the burning of fossil fuels may actually lead to an altered climate state that is incompatible with the foundations of our civilization. In order to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must reduce our output of greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, there is no roadmap in the geologic record for how we might transition away from the burning of fossil fuels. We must figure this out by writing our own history. While we can each do our part as individuals, lasting and substantial change must come from our institutions. I have only lived in the Chequamegon Bay area for a year, but I have noticed significant efforts of a regional community that is poised to address the issues of climate change. At Northland College, we have moved to divest from fossil fuels, embraced local food preservation and composting through
Dave Ullman is an assistant professor of geoscience at Northland College. His research focuses on climate change in the geologic record and the extent of past glaciations in the upper Midwest.
our new Hulings Rice Food Center, and are pursuing lasting initiatives to be carbon neutral by 2030. In addition, our educational mission strives to help students connect with and learn about the natural world, leading to graduates who are community problem solvers and technological innovators, working to promote environmental sustainability and solutions to climate change. The comprehensive plans of Ashland, Washburn, and Bayfield all point to a focus on sustainability by developing a pathway to renewable energy and reduction in fossil fuel usage. Bayfield Electric Cooperative and Xcel Energy have both begun the development of community-focused solar gardens to increase access to solar energy in the region and throughout the state. The active Chequamegon Chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby is hard at work promoting common sense and bipartisan legislation that will reduce the burning of fossil fuels. Our local tribal leaders continue to offer their important voice, reminding us of the negative consequences of fossil fuel production on our water, land, and air. So the next time I look out across Chequamegon Bay to ponder our region’s geologic past and climate future, I will be aware that this community is taking notice and moving forward with initiatives to address climate change. There is much to be proud of, yet much work to be done. I urge you to support existing efforts to promote sustainability and push our local institutions to do even more.
2014 John N. Allen Fitness and Recreation Center completed, with new indoor climbing wall.
2011 Michael A. Miller becomes Northland’s thirteenth president.
2011 Indigenous Cultures Center started.
2012 Professor Joe Rose retires.
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ON THE MOVE
Martin a Leading Voice for Outdoor Careers
Nancy Franz ’81 has been involved with women’s leadership and outdoor careers for years, from her time at Northland as an outdoor education/environmental education major, to her teaching at Iowa State, and her current hobbies and activities. So, when she was thinking of making a major gift to her alma mater, she wondered how she could encourage more young women to aim for leadership positions in outdoor careers. Would it be possible to establish an internship for women’s leadership in outdoor careers at Northland? With the help of her friends and classmates, they are doing just that. The endowed fund will provide educational opportunities for Northland College female students and promote pathways to leadership in the National Park Service and in outdoor careers. The internships will take place at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and/or the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. The first intern started working this fall. To join them in supporting this effort, go to:
northland.edu/wlie
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Chief of Fire and Aviation at Yosemite National Park Kelly Martin ‘86 led a workshop on leadership and resiliency for students at the Apostle Islands Mainland Sea Caves trail in April. Martin has become a leading national voice for underrepresented groups in outdoor careers. Martin testified before Congress in September 2016 about sexual harassment and gender-parity issues within the park.
Martin was featured in Outside Magazine for her participation in the inaugural Women’s Outdoor Summit for Empowerment this past summer. When asked by Outside reporter about what gives her hope, this was Martin’s response: “What gives me hope is that this summit was sold out so quickly. It was like people just know that this is the hope for our future, this is the hope for young people wanting to make careers in natural resources. I hope we look back on this as a pivot point that, when we all return to our home units, we have the hope to carry on, literally, the flame from this summit to really help make change.”
Our Alumni Lead Rich Lives In honor of our 125th anniversary, we’re featuring Northland alumni throughout the year to showcase the rich and diverse lives they lead. We hope you find their stories and the work they do as inspiring as we do. You can find these stories and more throughout the year at northland.edu/alumni-profiles
2015 Center for Rural Communities is established to apply researchbased solutions to social and economic challenges in rural areas, as well as to promote long-term health and vitality in the region.
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For Lucas, Elementary Ed Provides Pathway to Greater Good An excerpted interview with Harrison Lucas, who graduates in December with a degree in elementary education with a focus on social studies. Q. Why elementary education? How did you get on this path? A. Well, my dad is a teacher and so, I saw how he influences a lot of kids’ lives back home where I come from and I see how big of an impact he’s made within the community and people coming back are always saying, “Oh, your dad really helped me out. Listen to what he has to say. He’s a great guy.” And it made me want to follow in his footsteps and do the things that he’s done in his life and try to carry that on. Q. What is it about working with young people. A. I just like being able to connect with students and the youth, you know. Just having an impact would be nice. You don’t have to touch every student out
there. I don’t think every student will be able to be reached by you specifically, but if you can make a difference in two or three, I think that’s a good stepping stone. I mean, the youth are the future leaders and someone looked at me and probably looked at others and was like, “Well, they’re the future of our country.” So, if I could make an impact on them that would be a great thing. I do it to see the smile on their faces, you know? That’s to say I enjoy it every day. I just started being in the classrooms, and every day you hear, “Mr. Lucas! Mr. Lucas! How’s your day going? How’d your weekend go?” And that brings a smile to my face, and I think it brings joy to them, and so just the connection and being able to connect with kids and people in general.
Q. What pushes you to succeed? A. What fuels me is there’s just not a lot of positive male role models in the African-American community. And I kind of just look at myself as trying to be separating myself and try to be a positive male role model that you can look at. There’s a lot of people who—you know, they play sports, play basketball, they’re musicians and what not. And yeah, they’re African-American, but I want the kids and people to see, well, here’s an everyday guy and he’s doing positives in our community. And that’s kind of what’s always been my fuel to do greater good in the world. That would be my thing.
2015 Northland College launches The Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, devoted to freshwater science, environmental literacy, communication, and research.
For 125 years, Northland College has been committed to the idea of serving the educational needs of young people, protecting the land and resources of the region, building community, and creating generations of doers, makers, thinkers, and world changers. Become a sustainer to Northland College. Commit to automatic, monthly contributions—or make a onetime gift—to support the next generation of world changers. Give to the 125th Anniversary Scholarship Fund.
northland.edu/give
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GENERATIONS
Kenneth Olson
Albin Bro
Margueritte Harmon
Kenneth Bro
Harmon Bro
Peter Bro
Kim Bro
2016 Northland College makes proclamation, declaring the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
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The Bro Family: A Century at Northland College The Bro family at Northland College spans more than a century. The Bros have a rich history of adventure, lifelong friendships, love, connections, philanthropy, service, and finding one’s true calling. It is a story worthy of a book. Their Northland connection begins with Albin Carl Bro, the son of Swedish immigrants in Prentice, Wisconsin, whose high school pal was Kenneth Olson—Sigurd Olson’s brother. Kenneth set off to Northland College in 1912 and sent a letter to Albin, telling him he should do the same. Albin relayed the story of his arrival to Northland College at the 1945 inauguration of President Manley E. MacDonald:
A very good friend, Kenneth Olson, had pulled me away from a year’s work in a grocery store, and his story of Northland was so persuasive that another boy in the same store decided to go with me. We arrived [by train] with little money and some new clothes on the front steps of Wheeler. President Fenenga was there to greet us, and then in the next breath he blurted out, “Boys, it’s going to rain in a few minutes. Put down your suitcases and get out there in the field and help us get the hay in.” The rain came, and we worked hard. My new raincoat got caught on the hay rack and was ripped clear up the back. That night the boy who had come with me took his trunk back to the station and returned to Prentice. He had had enough of college education. I swallowed my feelings and stayed. How often one such small event can change the course of a lifetime. Kenneth, Albin, and Margueritte Harmon, sister of Harriet Harmon Dexter, were great friends. They sang in the choir, played sports, and were active with the Mission Study, a student organization that in 1916 focused on China. After graduation, Kenneth Olson went on to become an award-winning journalist (starting his career at the Ashland Daily Press); and Albin and Margueritte married. In 1919, the newlyweds boarded a ship to China, where they worked as missionaries. Three of their four children were born there: Harmon, who later attended and taught at Northland College; Kenneth, named for their good friend Kenneth Olson; and Alice. In 1925, when the war lord who had encouraged their work was overthrown during a nationalist uprising, they escaped from the country.
Albin taught English at Northland College for a year. The family moved to Chicago, where Albin continued graduate school and worked for the University of Chicago Press before becoming president of Frances Shimer College. Margueritte was a writer (and published author) with a strong interest in social justice issues. In fact, Kenneth shared a story in an archived interview of sitting in a car at age six while his mother interviewed the famous social reformer Jane Addams. Kenneth enjoyed a successful career in business, joined the board of trustees in 1957, and became the longest sitting member with forty-six years of service, including nine as emeritus. Two of Kenneth’s sons—Peter and Kenneth (Kim) Bro—continued the connection. Peter attended Northland College in 1970-71 and later sponsored Jamling Tenzing Norgay ’89, son of famous sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, to study at Northland College. “This was very much in the spirit of our grandparents’ work in China and Margueritte’s interests in social justice and in the world,” said Kim Bro, who lives near Washburn, Wisconsin. Kim did not attend college at Northland but he received a call in 1973 from his Aunt Harriet Harmon Dexter, who worked at the College for more than forty years. She told him about an internship at the new Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. Kim said the experience shaped the rest of his life. “Each day at Northland, I sought advice from Sigurd Olson and Aunt Harriet,” Kim Bro said. “I think the research and experiences of Granny [Margueritte] and my Uncle Harmon helped shape my thinking.” Kim returned to Northland College in 1996 as the director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. He continues to be a voice for conservation in the region, serving on the board of the Bayfield Regional Conservancy and as an enduring advocate for Northland College. In celebration of the family’s three generations of involvement with the College, in April 2003, Kenneth and his wife, Patricia, gifted $1 million to establish the Bro Professorship of Sustainable Regional Development, a professorship that continues today. “As my grandfather [Albin] said in 1945, seemingly small events at Northland changed the course of lifetimes: a letter from a student, a study group on China, and a call from a professor,” Kim concluded. “In just one family, this college effected positive changes in the Lake Superior region and around the world for three generations.”
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SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES OF: Doris (Lee) Konkol ‘49; Des Moines, IA; 02.08.15 Roger J. Sperka ‘62; El Paso, TX; 03.01.15 Anne Thorstenson ‘80; Duluth, MN; 08.21.15 Elaine (Pedersen) Glover ‘46; Colbert, WA; 01.28.16 G. Craig Woolley; Colorado Springs, CO; 11.14.16 Jay S. Cablk ‘97; Ashland, WI; 01.23.17 Theodore A. Johnson, Jr. ‘56; Tower, MN; 02.06.17 Patrick R. Durkin ‘56; Mount Vernon, WA; 02.08.17 Dawn (Bagger) Corrinne ‘72; Geneseo, IL; 02.10.17 Daniel I. Mackey ‘73; Indianola, IA; 03.08.17 John F. Lorscheter ‘60; Rice Lake, WI; 03.18.17 Frank K. Seidel ‘59; Zephyrhills, FL; 03.23.17 Lenore (Henderson) Hooper ‘43; Bayfield, WI; 03.25.17 Diane K. Rosen ‘06; Burnsville, MN; 04.04.17 Robert G. Chase ‘62; Fox Point, WI; 04.06.17 Clyde R. Carter ‘51; Solon Springs, WI; 04.12.17 Neil R. Paulson ‘56; Drummond, WI; 04.28.17 Judd J. Schoeneman ‘69; Okauchee, WI; 05.01.17 Danford G. Welty ‘80; Ashland, WI; 05.01.17 Earl S. Sanford; Minneapolis, MN; 05.17.17 Gertrude (Gall) Forbes ‘41; Seattle, WA; 05.24.17 Carlotta (Johnson) Reiman ‘66; Wisconsin Rapids, WI; 06.03.17 James A. Papez ‘50; Madison, WI; 06.04.17 Francine (Hicks) Hare ‘63; Ashland, WI; 06.08.17 Glenn C. Martin ‘78; Gillett, WI; 06.08.17 Roger A. DeByle ‘59; Green Valley, AZ; 06.23.17 Judith (Symes) Groth ‘62; Little Falls, MN; 06.23.17 Fred A. Wiener ‘63; Mellen, WI; 06.30.17 Kenneth D. Newman ‘59; Marion, IA; 07.01.17 Roy T. Minkin ‘72; Ironwood, MI; 07.04.17
Alumni Association Board of Directors: Craig Mullenbrock ’77 (President) Beverly Harris ’72 (Vice President) Gail Fridlund ’15 (Secretary) Laurel “Johnnie” Fisher ’72 Nancy Franz ’81 Ivan Gaikowski ’14 MaryJo Gingras ’00 Blake Gross ’96 Mark Gross ’83 Richard Harguindeguy ’78 Madeline Jarvis ’13 KayDee Johnson ’16 Katherine Jenkins ’96 Max Metz ’10 Peter Millett ’69 Travis Moore ’11 Jaime Moquin ’98 Sam Polonetzky ’70 Kaeleen Ringberg ’12 Stuart Schmidt ’17 Patti Skoraczewski ’74 Leanne Wilkie Shamszad ’04
Christopher T. Morgan ‘19; Rochester Hills, MI; 08.05.17 Mark M. Smith ‘65; West Palm Beach, FL; 08.16.17
For additional alumni stories and events, go to: northland.edu/alumni-news
2016 The Ponzio Stadium dedicated during Fall Festival.
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2016 With a remarkable 7-0-1 season, the Northland College women’s soccer team won the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference title for the first time ever.
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Be a part of the Tour de Friends: host an event, learn more, and follow the tour at bringthenoyes.com or Andy Noyes on Facebook.
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Linda Rise ’87 and Andy Noyes ’84 of Ashland, Wisconsin, are leaving their jobs and cruising the country for a year as a way to find inspiration and discover the best of who they are. They will be traveling by camper van, visiting Northland College alumni, friends, and family, and performing live acoustic shows in host homes, backyards, and patios. Andy will provide the music; Linda the logistics. Andy has worked as a musician since his Northland days, performing at celebrations, weddings, funerals, and for people looking to shake off the work week. With a tour of house concerts, he’s “seeking a deeper chance for music to connect and be really listened to,” he says. “Not as some big focused effort on the listener’s part but simply a casual, quiet place to listen and laugh. Tell some stories. Clear out the noise.”
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Clearing out the Noise: Camper Van House Concert Tour
Clockwise from top left: the class of 2021 crosses the Fenenga Bridge on the way to the Convocation Ceremony. Students Alec Drachenburg and Paul Gallegos hold up jars of raw honey harvested by the Northland College Bee Keeping Program to present to President Miller. Students press apple cider on campus. Northland’s first-ever team of Eco-Reps Jen Franke, Sara Beadle, Katie Nolan, and Ellie Zimmer will support sustainability on campus during the 2017-18 academic year through educational programs and events. As many as fifteen Northland alumni attended the International Coregonid (Whitefish) Symposium in Bayfield, Wisconsin, this September. Circle: A 2017 graduate takes a celebratory ride to the Baccalaureate Ceremony preceding the 2017 Commencement. Chef Lars Dukowitz is the new food lab technician at the Hulings Rice Food Center. Alumni and father-son team Mark and Brontë Gross have been working for the last several years to make the Northland College Sailing Club a reality for current students. Students Patrick Shea (left) and Hal Welch (right) rode from Northland College to New Orleans as an independent study during the 2017 May Term.
NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE
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2017 Professor Joel Glickman retires.
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2017 The Hulings Rice Food Center launches, including the Don R. and Carole Larson Food Lab, a large-scale composting system, and several demonstration gardens.
Watch for more news about Northland’s sustainability programs in the next issue of the Northland College Magazine.
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